Top Ten Maritime News Stories 14/12/2015

Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 14/12/2015

1. Shipping Left Out of COP21

The shipping industry has been left out of the final agreement for COP21 on climate change agreed on Saturday. The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) tweeted: “It seems no explicit mention of shipping in final UNFCCC text, but work will continue at IMO with industry encouragement and support.” It added that it would be reviewing the implications from the full and final COP21. Environmental groups had been pushing hard for the inclusion of emissions targets for both shipping and aviation in the COP21 agreement. The shipping and aviation industries had been included in an earlier draft but were dropped last week.

http://goo.gl/kdQdea

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2. Ship Tips Boxes in Bay

The container ship Manoa lost a dozen of empty containers in rough seas at San Francisco Bay on 8 nautical miles off Golden Gates. The cargo ship maneuvered to disembark pilot in bad weather and big swell after leaving the port of San Francisco an route to Seattle, when several containers were washed overboard into the waters of San Francisco Bay. All the containers remained afloat and one was even adrifted to the shore. The crew of ship Manoa informed the local authorities about the accident and was sent a navigation warning to seafarers for the floating containers. The ship did not suffered any damaged during the accident and there were no injured people.

http://goo.gl/FqYVTo

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3. Explosive Collision Warning

Forget 5 or more short blasts on the ship’s horn – when in doubt about a potential collision, a Russian warship fired warning shots. They were directed at a Turkish boat as the two vessels threatened to collide. The incident occurred on Sunday 22 kilometers (13 miles) north of the Greek island of Limnos in the Aegean Sea, according to a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry. Relations between Russia and Turkey have been tense since a Russian jet operating in Syria was shot down by the Turkish military on November 24, killing one pilot. Another Russian soldier died during a rescue mission that retrieved the surviving crew member.

http://goo.gl/rA5Xq9

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4. New Proposals for Shipping Policy

The European Community Shipowners’ Association (ECSA) has unveiled 16+1 proposals to strengthen the £10bn shipping industry ahead of an upcoming review of the European Union’s (EU) shipping policy in 2017. The association presented 16 policy proposals for better regulation to boost the EU’s global leadership in the shipping sector, while completing the internal market for shipping and digitalisation to simplify administrative processes. ECSA presented a check list for smarter regulation that ensures compliance with regulatory norms, while ensuring that EU shipping regulation adds more value than what can be achieved at an international level.

http://goo.gl/ODwLmU

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5. Master Arrested for Bunker Fraud

Mumbai Police have arrested the captain of cargo ship Kresh Jade, 42-year-old Shamshul Bakhri, in conection with an alleged black market bunker scam, Iocal media reports. Indonesian national Bakhri, said to be the seventh suspect arrested in case, is reported to have been brought before a local court last Thursday and has been charged under a number of sections of the Indian Penal Code, such as criminal conspiracy, as well as sections of the Petroleum Act, Essential Commodities Act, and Black Marketing Act. The other six suspects are reported to have been arrested the previous week during a raid approximately off the Mumbai coast in which 11,000 litres of oil was seized.

http://goo.gl/fMAqmC

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6. Customs Seize Drug Haul

Customs officials have seized at least 2.4 tons of cocaine from a cargo ship off France’s northern coast. The "Carib Palm", a Moldovan-flagged freighter, had sailed from Colombia and was headed to Gdansk in Poland.  It docked at the northern French port of Boulogne-sur-Mer on Thursday night, a source close to the investigation said, confirming a report by France 3 television. "The ship was intercepted yesterday (Thursday) at 6:30 p.m. at sea and at 8:00 p.m. was brought to the dock at Boulogne-sur-Mer, where the search operation began," the finance ministry said in a statement. "The drugs were concealed behind a metal partition."

http://goo.gl/TyOwIW

 

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7. Engineers Indicted for Pollution Offences

A federal grand jury in Greenville has returned a nine-count indictment charging two engineering officers on a ship that called earlier this year at the N.C. Port of Wilmington with crimes relating to the illegal discharge of oily waste directly into the ocean. The two engineering officers worked for Oceanfleet Shipping Ltd., a Greek shipping company that operates the cargo carrier M/V Ocean Hope. The discharge was discovered in July during a Coast Guard inspection at Wilmington. Indicted are the vessel’s chief engineer, Rustico Yabut Ignacio, 65, and the second engineer, Cassius Flores Samson, 51, both of the Philippines.

http://goo.gl/A3Q9SP

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8. Idle Box Ships Grow

The idle container ship capacity is growing and can reach record values until the end of the year. At the end of November there are 329 idle container ships with total capacity of 1.4 million TEU, which represent 7% from the global container fleet. Just for the last month the idle container ships capacity increased with 400 thousand TEU, as according to the forecasts until the end of the year will be reached new anti-record on the global market, surpassing 1.5 million TEU. The container shipping operators continue to place orders and receive deliveries of large container ships, despite of the despite of the decreasing freight rates and over capacity on the market.

http://goo.gl/4STXvK

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9. Turkish Links to ISIS Oil

According to the media, oil tankers owned by Bilal Erdogan, son Turkish President Erdogan, has involved in the illicit  oil trade with  Islamic State (ISIS). The ships are  registered in Malta and all fly the Maltese flag. Russia’s allegations of Turkish involvement in ISIS’ oil trade have focused primarily on the Turkish president’s son, Bilal Erdogan. The 34-year-old is one of three equal partners in the BMZ group, a major Turkish oil and marine shipping company, which both the Russian and Syrian governments have accused of purchasing oil from ISIS.

http://goo.gl/eO7hWj

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10. G6 Set to Continue

The G6 Alliance will continue to operate as planned in 2016 despite planned acquisition of Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) by CMA CGM, which is expected to complete in the second half of this year. NOL’s container line APL is a one of six members of the G6 Alliance. When CMA CGM announced its plans on Monday to acquire the Singapore-headquartered line said it planned to bring APL into the Ocean 3 alliance of which it is a member along with UASC and China Shipping Container Line (CSCL). There could also be changes to CMA CGM’s alliance arrangements in Ocean 3 with CSCL set to merge with fellow Chinese line Cosco.

http://goo.gl/moLLi8

 

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